GREAT Friday!!

Dearest Whanua,

I got some crazy news for you right now! I am currently emailing from the hospital in Tauranga.  We were walking to go contact someone and we knocked on their door and nobody came so we started walking back to our car when I heard two dogs barking up a storm and chasing after us. We tried to book it for the car, but it was just a little too far. I tried chucking my Book of Mormon at it and yelling at it, but it latched onto my arm and the other grabbed my outer thigh. I somehow managed to punch them off and get in the car, but my leg and especially my arm were in pretty bad shape... hahaha…jokes…April Fools! The sisters got us pretty good today too. They told us it was sister QaQa's birthday and we sang “You've had a Birthday” to her. Funny thing is there was a little truth to that story. We did knock on a door and we did get chased by a dog. I outran Elder Hatch (yes, that joke is true that you don’t need to worry about being fast, you just need to worry about being faster than your companion) :) Anyways, Elder Hatch turned around, chucked a Book of Mormon at the dog, yelled at it, and luckily it ran away. Then the owner came out and he was one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. We are going back next week.

Sooooo sorry bout that mom….probably shouldn't joke like that! :) Anyways, it sounds like all is well in AZ. I am glad you guys enjoyed your Easter.  I'm glad you destroyed Ironwood Ridge it sounds like they’re really number 1! And…way to go Mesa! That’s pretty crazy that they are actually good. You have got to be kidding me?! You get to go Hawaii, Collin??? I forgot about that! It’s all goods though cuz I have practically been in a version of Hawaii the past 10 months or so. Also, I am jealous of Ava getting to ride a big turtle. Who the heck owns that? Oh hey, I also just saw a picture of Carson Schaub home from his mission. That boy looks good!  Tell him I said Hi and I expect a wedding invitation soon.

So yes, I had one of the absolute best Easter seasons of my life. We, of course, continued to go see G and his family, but we ran into some complications three days before Saturday (the day of his baptism). He was going to have to work!!! So we decided to do a short notice change to GOOD, or should I say, GREAT Friday. The day before the assistants came down for a trade off, and I actually went with Elder Alder. He was my first Zone Leader in the mission and the first missionary I traded off with the night I arrived when Elder Manewell, my companion then, smashed his foot playing basketball. Anywho, he interviewed G, R, and S. They all passed okay and we were good to go for the next day. The next day though we woke up and Elder Alder and I went to do a companionship study with another companionship, and made it back just 30 minutes before the sister’s baptism. We got some bad news that G was in the emergency room, so we rushed down there with Elder Tebano, the Kiribati elder, and sadly only 2 were allowed in. Elder Hatch and Tebano went inside while I stayed with R and Elder Wilcken. They gave him a blessing and Elder Tebano helped translate for the doctors and answer some of their questions. Golf was determined to get baptized and he ended up leaving the ER at like 3 o’clock. Oh, and I’m not sure still why he had to go to the ER.  I knew he couldn't breathe and his stomach was super swollen. I think it had something to do with high blood pressure. Anyways, that night at 7:30 we had the baptism service. Elder Tebano spoke and he was in tears along with most the people there even though a lot couldn't understand what he was saying in his native tongue. There was just a super good spirit! It was a little funny cuz our baptism font is just a big bath tub and G is a big boy. When Elder Tebano baptized him, G kinda just dive bombed backwards, almost hit his head, and took Elder Tebano with him. It was hard not to laugh, but suprisingly it didn't take away from the spirit. He was so happy and he stood in the water in tears and gave Elder Tebano a big hug. The other kids were awesome too and G bore his testimony at the end and went around and hugged everyone at the end. Confirmation day was just as sweet. I sure do love those people and I will have to send you some pictures of them next week.

Other than that the week was pretty normal. We got to go help out with the young men and we let them ask us missionaries whatever questions they wanted. Then we had a few activities and we bore our testimonies about serving the Lord and encouraged all the boys to really consider going on a mission. It was good especially because half the boys were probably less than enthused about taking two years to teach the Gospel.

Sorry today is short cuz everything is closed during the Easter holidays here. So we had to drive a long way to find an open internet store.

I look forward to hearing from you next week and Collin…write me you bum! I haven't heard from you in ages. I would ask Trevor too, but he doesn't owe me a thing. Still, give him my love wherever he is.

Love,
Elder Ward

Baptism Day

The Whole Gang

 

 

 

Before

 

 

After